Mobile advertising revenue expected to take off

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, more people are using these devices to access mobile content. As a result, research firm Gartner expects revenue in the worldwide mobile advertising market to reach $3.3 billion this year.

By 2015, the worldwide market will reach $20.6 billion, with North America earning nearly $5.8 billion in revenue. Mobile advertising budgets in Western Europe and North America are expected to increase the most by 2015, representing 25 and 28 percent of the market, respectively, according to Gartner.

Search and map advertisements will represent the highest level of revenue, while audio/video ads will be the fastest growing.

"As the adoption of smartphones and media tablets extends to more consumers, the audience for mobile advertising will increase and become easier to segment and target, driving the growth of mobile advertising spend for brands and advertisers," said Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner.

With the rapid adoption of tablets, worldwide information technology spending is on the rise for 2011 as well. According to Gartner, worldwide IT budgets will reach $3.6 trillion this year, increasing 5.6 percent, due to the increased use of tablet computers.